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Friday, December 4, 2009

Oh Christmas Tree

The holidays are HERE which means Christmas parades, twinkle lights, gingerbread houses, gift wrapping, caroling, and of course the celebration of the birth of baby Jesus has officiallybegun! And to make it even more special, it's our very first married Christmas, which makes it merrier than usual!

To kick off the holiday season, the first order of business was to find the perfect tree. Growing up as an Army kid, it only made sense for my family to have a fake tree, so I was super excited about the prospect of a live tree and even more so about getting to go out and chop it down. Something about it just sounded so... rustic maybe? Traditional? I wasn't really sure what I felt, but I was like a four-year-old on Christmas morning all the way there.

Since the family was all still in town, we loaded into 2 cars (complete with the pups as well) and headed out to the farm! Once there, we grabbed a wagon and an axe and set out on our search. Having never done this, I had no idea just how overwhelming tree hunting can be (or how many stumps you can trip over in a span of five minutes for that matter)! Each tree was unique in its own way, but some had big bare spots in the back or were not quite tall/fat/full enough for what we were looking for. Josh would point one out to me and I would just look at it and try to picture it in the house with lights and ornaments, but mostly it just looked like a tree in a field at that moment! Finally I gave him a little bit of direction when I said, "I like the fat ones." Hmmm... maybe it's because I'm pregnant.

Eventually, there it was. Josh stumbled upon it before I did, and I came running (well, if it could be described as that) over to where it was planted. And he was right... it was perfect. We all stood around and gave a few ooh's and ahhh's before Josh and his dad set to work chopping it down. The rest of us all looked on, took pictures, and enjoyed the brisk, winter air. We finally got it loaded up onto the wagon and put the little ones to work as they tried to pull the wagon all the way back to the car.

We watched them wrap it up with their super-nifty machine, strap it to the roof of my car (which has probably never had anything on it until now... my car just got a little bit tougher!), and off we went to take our beautiful new tree to its new home.

When we got it up and decorated, it was PERFECTION... the most beautiful tree I have ever seen. And oh it smells so good, too! Here in Mauneyland, a new tradition has been born, and I will forever be a "real tree snob" from here on out.

Our Mighty Chopper

Down she goes!Fun family timeChild labor... good job pulling the wagon, boys!

The tree-wrap machine was awesome!

Loaded up and headed for home

Finishing touches (and a lovely face from Josh)

Happy Holidays to all! Enjoy your Christmas season and remember that Jesus is the reason for it all!